Brother, My Brother
by Liahgeron
Summary: This is my first chaptered OT fic. I hope you enjoy it. I plan to make it an epic. This'll be all for the summer.
1. Preview

1 Brother, My Brother  
  
A figure stands in infinite darkness.  
  
It lifts a pale hand, which begins to glow faintly with a bluish light, and beings to speak with a deep voice filled with wisdom and power, "Long, long ago the story began. It was a story of friendship and love, a story of pain and growth, but most of all it was a story of life…"  
  
(Begin soundtrack, "Brother, My Brother" from Pokemon: the First Movie)  
  
The scene shifts to a dark, stormy night. A young boy of about 3, in wet shirt and shorts, is running into a forest clearing, the pounding rain and lightning pounding down around him. The boy stops, as if hearing a noise. He turns and runs into the trees, where a cat-like form about his size curled up in some roots, crying silently. It sniffs and stops, looking up at the boy, who smiles and picks it up in his arms. A blue-white meteor with a spiral trail and a double core streaks through the night sky over head. And time progresses…  
  
"Brother, my brother  
  
Tell me what are we fighting for,  
  
We've got to end this war,"  
  
The boy, now about 16, and the strange cat pokemon he found years ago stand in a darkened and badly damaged arena. Both are panting and holding large swords similar to katana but of nodachi length. They each have a variety of bleeding cuts on their bodies. The Pokemon, who could only be Mewtwo, although with more human-like arms and chest, smaller, thinner and shorter tail, larger torso and generally more human in proportions, and wearing clothes. The boy lifts his sword to defend himself from the overhead slash from behind as the Strange Mewtwo attacks, a black metal collar visible around his neck. The scene fades as the boy flashes brilliant white and the Mewtwo is sent flying.  
  
"We should love one another  
  
Oh, can't we just pretend  
  
This war never began?"  
  
A boy, now 5, is seen running, his arms spread to his sides, through a grass field that reaches up to his chest, being chased by the Mewtwo wearing the same clothes as he. Mewtwo pounces on the boy and they both laugh as they roll through the grass, wrestling, their laughter ringing through the field the entire time...  
  
"We can try  
  
Brother, my Brother  
  
We face each other  
  
From different sides  
  
The anger burns,  
  
Can't remember why…"  
  
The boy and the Mewtwo, now 6, are in a simple room arguing hotly over a broken toy. Finally the boy turns and runs away, crying. The Mewtwo, tears also in his eyes, sobs and falls down crying for a time. He sees a hand offering a toy, identical to the one that broke. The Mewtwo sniffs and looks up. Seeing the boy, they embrace and are soon attempting to fix the broken toy…  
  
"…It's kinda crazy  
  
To cause such pain  
  
Our foolish pride  
  
Makes us hate this way…"  
  
The boy and Mewtwo, now 10, stand in a forest clearing, large swords at their backs. They bow, then leap at each other, drawing swords of katana- shape but much bigger, almost 2 meters of blade 3 inches in width, a yin- yang stamped near the bottom of the blade. They begin to duel, much like bad samurai movies where the fighters range all over the place with leaps and rolls, blocking and slashing at an amazing rate. Finally, the boy gains the upper hand and with a sweep trips the Mewtwo, who lands hard, but does not drop his blade. The boy sheaths his sword, wipes his forehead, and offers his hand to the Mewtwo, who winces as the boy pulls him to his feet, but smiles. They bow and begin again…  
  
"We watch our road fall apart  
  
Tell me, what good is winning  
  
When you lose your heart?"  
  
The boy, again in the arena, is standing, his breath coming in great gasps. The Mewtwo is across the arena, partially buried by rubble from the wall. The Mewtwo stands up, slowly, bringing his sword again to bear, then falling again to his knees as the boy watches sadly…  
  
"We should love one another  
  
Oh why can we just pretend  
  
This war never began?"  
  
The Mewtwo stands on a rock, watching the sunset, a tear rolling from his eye. He wears a strange silver armor(Think Bob's from Reboot at the end of season 3, but with a helmet and shoulder guards that stick outward and ornate gauntlets) with both swords at his back. Twin huge wings of white feathers stick out on either side but fold around him. His head snaps up as if hearing something, and is shocked by what he sees. The boy sits on the rock above him in the shadows, speaking. He pauses and looks at Mewtwo and smiles, as a ray of light from the sunset strikes his form, revealing it to be ghostly transparent…  
  
"…Tell me why,  
  
Brother, my brother  
  
Let's take a moment  
  
And look deep inside  
  
And say we're willing  
  
To give love a try,"  
  
The Mewtwo stands, in his armor, facing what looks to be a giant stone temple, illuminated by occasional lightning strikes from the storm around it, a bright column of blue light shining into the sky from its center. As he prepares to enter it through huge open doors of wood, a hand on his shoulder stops him. He turns to see a teenaged girl with long black hair. She speaks 4 words. The Mewtwo nods, then runs into the temple, leaving the girl behind in the storm, tears welling up in her eyes…  
  
"We're not as different  
  
As we seem to be  
  
There's so much more to me  
  
Than you see,"  
  
The Mewtwo has reached the Temple's central chamber, where a huge crystal nexus producing the blue light lies. The nexus is surrounded by small spheres of the light. Suddenly, the Mewtwo is sent flying by a blast of Dark energy, fired by a man standing at the base of the crystal. He laughs and turns back to the crystal. The Mewtwo tries to stand, and fails. Tears roll from his eyes. But amazingly, a human form fades into view, forming from one of the small light spheres that had detached from the others, offering his hand to Mewtwo. The Mewtwo stares in shock, but takes the hand. A white glow envelops them. The man turns back and looks in shock at the light, which now conceals the pair. A huge beam of white light sends the man flying from the crystal as the light fades to reveal…  
  
"We don't have to be this way  
  
Think about consequences  
  
Turn around and walk away…"  
  
The dark man and a new, mysterious winged form are locked in a battle of pure energy, beams of light and dark meeting in the center of the room. The shock waves are tremendous and the temple begins to break apart. Oddly, the crystal is still intact, but its light wavers, as if deciding…  
  
"…Brother, my brother  
  
Tell me, what are we fighting for  
  
Isn't life worth so much more?  
  
We could love on another  
  
Oh why can't we just pretend  
  
This war never began?"  
  
The Boy, now about 14, and the Mewtwo face each other across a field, a strange sun setting between them. The both wore simple and identical clothes and had drawn their swords. The sun was orange and black, divided vertically into a Yin-Yang, a Tiger is pictured in orange on the black half, which is closer to the Mewtwo, and a Dragon pictured in black on the orange half, closer to the Boy.  
  
"Tell me why,  
  
Brother, my brother  
  
TELL ME WHY!"  
  
They suddenly leap at each other, their swords clashing in the exact center of the Yin-Yang, the scene suddenly goes black.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, unfortunately. Most of the characters in this will be my creation though. If you want to borrow, please ask first.  
  
Note: This is my first Chaptered fic, also my first on a major site, so please be kind. Non-constructive flames will be met with a Dimense Tap Cannon. Also, no the girl is not in love with the Mewtwo. 


	2. Twin Fates

1 Brother, My Brother Prologue  
  
After Ash wins the Johto League, but during the same year, on a small island on the end of the Orange Archipelago named Rookery…  
  
A small, black haired, purple-eyed boy of about three years old sits in a large field of short grass, a forest behind him, his mother, who was about 25 with black hair and brown eyes, lying on a lawn chair also behind him, reading. The boy is playing with small pokemon figures, specifically Dragonite, Gengar, Machamp, Alazazam, and a Mew designed off the Ancient Mew card. His head suddenly snaps up to the sky, and his mother asks concerned, "What's wrong, Honey?"  
  
The boy turns to his mother and, in a deadly serious tone completely unnatural for a boy his age, responds, "Storm's coming, Mommy."  
  
The mother, understandably unsettled by her son's behavior, breaks out in a rash of sweatdrops. Nervously, she looks up and around at the perfect, blue sky. With her 7 years experience on the Islands, she had learned how to spot storms, yet there wasn't even a cloud in sight on this beautiful afternoon. She frowns, knowing that her son had the uncanny ability to predict danger, such as storms. He had even predicted that freak weather change over a year before with his very first sentence. But seeing no reason to suspect a storm, she tried to change her son's serious out look saying in a pacifying and condescending tone, "No, Honey. See," she pointed up and the boy looked, "There aren't any clouds in sight, I'm sure there won't be a storm today."  
  
The boy looked back at his mother, smiling, "Okay, Mommy." And he returned to his toys with a laugh…  
  
Later that night…  
  
The mother cursed loudly, the storm had come up from nowhere and was now raging around her. She grabbed her book and chair, then turned to get her son, only to find nothing. Panicked, she began to call his name, but it was in vain. Soon a group of men on large, winged forms, dragonites, landed near her and call for her to get on. She shook her head frantically and stuttered out what had happened. In a well-trained fashion, one pair of dragonite and rider grabbed her and, before she could come out of her shock, injected her with a small syringe. She collapsed and the man placed her gently on the back of his dragonite and took off with her toward the nearest shelter. The rest fanned out with their dragonites into the fields and nearby forest, calling the boy's name. In the sky, a bright, blue light could barely be seen peeking through the clouds…  
  
Deeper in the forest…  
  
The boy stopped, panting from his run, but not for long. I must not stop. I'm already late. He thought, before beginning to run once more. Deeper he ran into the forest, if he could see above the trees, he would know that he was rapidly approaching the Rookery Island's temple ruins. After several minutes of running all out, the boy suddenly stops, just able to see the ruins through the trees in front of him. Slowly, he turns in a full circle, listening carefully. He then laughs, turns, and runs off again, this time parallel to the edge of the clearing where the ruins lie. He soon stops over a large bundle of white and purple fur, the same size as he, which was growing and shrinking in bursts…it was sobbing.  
  
"Hello!" said the boy, oddly happy for one so drenched and cold.  
  
The bundle of fur stops sobbing, and looks up, sniffing, its purple eyes meeting a matching pair. For a moment, time seems to stop as a note can be just heard above the rain, like a string being plucked. Around them, the storm instantly stops and the clouds begin to dissipate. The boy smiles and laughs, breaking the moment. He picks up the kitten-like form in his arms and sets off. Above them, in the now clear sky, a meteor could be seen, a very odd meteor with a spiral tail and twin cores. The meteor streaks from the sky, splitting into its two parts as it approaches the temple ruins. Inside the ruins, a pair of archeologists work diligently to cover up their work, their flickering lamps cast ghostly shadows on the rune-carved walls. From above, the twin meteors, now separate, smash through the ceiling of the dome-like base of the triad of towers at the center of the ruins. Their blue light seems to ignite the runes as they fall only to crash strangely lightly on the floor of the ruins, impacting with minimal force on a pair of indentations. The runes of the temple begin to glow the same fiery blue color as the meteors while the meteors cool into irregular, silver balls. The two archeologists stare in awe at the sight. The blue light reveals a small red R on the screen of their central piece of equipment, a large computer.  
  
Not too far away, and moments before, on the island of Shamouti, a sextet of bird-like forms perch on crystalline columns that surround a small platform, upon which a crowned form stands, a Slowking. At the base of the platform, three feline forms lounge. Above them all a pair floats, one small and one man-sized.  
  
"The prophecy begins," states the largest of the shadowed forms, a form that is a mix between a bird and fish, in a voice that seems to boom through the mind with its regal majesty.  
  
The smaller floating form responds, in a more child-like mind-voice, "Yes, it does. I hope they'll have fun!"  
  
The Slowking replies, "Yes, they will, Mew, but they must pay dearly for the ride."  
  
The man-sized form unfolds its legs from the Lotus position that it previously was in to stand seemingly on thin air, the dim moon lit revealing it to be a blend of feline and human features, began to speak in a angry tone with a booming mind-voice, "I do not see why we must allow my younger brother be raised as a human! He should learn freedom from us!"  
  
The largest of the felines lounging at the bottom of the platform responded in a deep, commanding voice, "Have you so soon forgotten the Chosen One's lesson, Mewtwo? He gave his very life to get his point across."  
  
Mewtwo sniffed, "I have not forgotten the Chosen One, Entei, but I still must ask 'Why?'. The humans, for the most part, have not changed. They have dared once again to play Jurei and create another. If it were not for my interference, another New Island may have occurred. Who's to say that it will not just as easily happen this way?"  
  
The smallest form of all, floating just above a pillar, responded, in a musical, feminine voice, "The future is very convoluted. Each event is connected to all other events and therefore infinite possibilities are created. Each Celebii guards her own time line, but even we cannot be sure its future. Destiny will take care of itself, all we have done is given it a nudge."  
  
The legendary Pheonix, Ho-oh, added, in a female voice reminiscent of the pokeflute "awakening" song, "Mewtwo, be at peace. The Chosen One, Ashura, is carrying out his purpose, but we must prepare the next step. Ash is to show the world how to live with pokemon as partners. This pair will teach them to live as brothers."  
  
The other legendaries voiced their agreement and soon departed until only the Celebii and Slowking remained. Together they looked toward the falling twined meteor as it pierced and dissipated the storm around a particular island near the edge of the Orange Archipelago.  
  
"You know that there is no way to truly predict what will happen now, Celebii."  
  
"Yes, and I am glad. For the first time in millennia, I do not know the ultimate outcome of my gamble. It is much more fun this way."  
  
Slowking just shook his head and thought toward the pair that had just played the threads of fate like a harp, Enjoy your childhood Chosen of Destiny. I fear you will have little else…  
  
Well? What do you think? Any ideas? I have only two main sections outlined in my head right now: Childhood, the trip to Kanto, Early Kanto, the Event(see beginning of PREVIEW, that is part of this battle), Mourning, and the Finale(the second part of the Preview is a small preview). I really need help on the filler. Send you comments to liageron@midsouth.rr.com, only constructive flames, please.  
  
  
  
DISCLAIMER I unfortunately don't own pokemon. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction, now would I? I do how ever own most of the characters that'll be used, so please ask before borrowing! 


	3. Growth, part 1

Brother, My Brother: Ch.1

Disclaimer: I'm an avid fan of fanfiction, and I have a very good subconscious memory. If any of your ideas, places, names, characters, etc. appear in any of my works, I'm sorry, but it is most likely that I did not use it/them on purpose. As to the major corporations who own pokemon and other things, it won't do you much good to sue me, even my college funds are doing badly. This might be my only Disclaimer.

A man and a woman in their late-twenties sat, arguing, at a table.

"Dammit, Sarah! We can't adopt a pokemon as a kid!"

"But John! Just look at them!" 

She pointed out the window. Just in sight was a pair of youthful forms wrestling each other. They laughed as they tumbled about, one or the other occasionally winning before the rose to start anew with a chase. Both were dressed in identical jean coveralls with purple t-shirts. They were of identical height, but were almost entirely different in looks. One was a young Asian featured boy with black hair. The other had feline features. He was white furred with gray highlights. He had delicate hands with long fingers, though still youthfully chubby. The only identical feature between them was their eyes. Both held deep purple eyes illuminated from within by the light of constant laugher.

As he beheld the pair, one his son, the other his possible son-to-be, he realized that neither cared that their looks were different. John Yao knew deep in his heart that they would never see each other as they shou–_No_, he mentally corrected–as others thought they should.

"Can't you see that neither of them would stand to be separated? They don't care what the world would think of them, they're too young."

John, knowing he was losing this argument, turned back to his wife and asked, "And when they are older?"

Sarah looked out upon the boys whom she considered twins, "Look at them. Do you really think _anything_ could change their bond? They're as close as twins, closer even."

John sighed, admitting his final defeat, "Fine, fine. But how are we going to convince the League Council?"

Sarah smirked, "The same way I just convinced you."

Outside, the two boys, twin brothers in soul and mind, if not body, played, oblivious to the monumental event that had just taken place in their lives. An event that would change the future of the Pokemon World

2 years later

Balgus Masaki stood in the grassy fields of Rookery Island, a large _bokken_ in the _Katana_ style in his hand, practicing. One of the few remaining people on the planet who could be called a Weapons Master. In a world where a ten year old kid could potentially devastate a small city with 6 plasteel spheres, very few people bothered to learn hand-to-hand combat beyond the basic courses taught in Training Basics and even fewer learned the use of weapons and advanced techniques. Balgus was a rarity among a dying breed: he not only taught weapons but also how to make them. His favorite weapon, the famous Japanese sword, the _Katana_, now was rarely seen outside a museum, and very rarely at that. This lack of interest is what drove him to this small, sparsely populated island. Here, he lived off the sale of his custom weapons to the highest bidder. Here, in near total solitude, he wrote what he considered would be his greatest service. Never having trained a successor, and now approaching his 104th birthday(average life expectancy is about 100), he did not think he would remain active enough to do so for much longer. To compensate, for the last 4 years he had begun to compile all of his knowledge: forging, craftsmanship, care, form, morals, disciplines, and most importantly his 10 strokes(_kata_), onto a Data Crystal which he would copy and send to all the remaining _dojo_ across the world. 

He sighed and begun to weave his patterns. As he moved, he became aware of a presence nearby. He cut his movements short, hearing a strange, high giggle. He quickly looked back and forth trying to identify the source. He did not find it. Shaking his head at the noises, turning aroundonly to find two identical pairs of eyes staring at him from only an inch away!

"Ack!" he yelled leaping back, shocked that anything could've sneaked up on him. As he landed, he noticed that his "attackers" were a pair of boys, identicalin clothes alone. One appeared to be a normal human boy, the other was an oddly human-like feline, obviously a pokemon. They were laughing at his reaction. Only one pair on the island matched the description of these two. He did not know them well, but he had seen them before at town council meetings.

"Alright! Xi' an, Mao! What are you doing here!"

The pair straightened up and became very formal. Mao, the pokemon brother, spoke first.

"We'd like to know if you still take on students, sir."

"Yeah!" said Xi' an, the more energetic brother.

Balgus considered the pair for a moment before replying, "May I ask why?"

"Well, sir, we started the self-defense course in school last month, and we'd like to do more than the stuff they showed us."

Xi' an nodded eagerly, his brother almost invisibly sighing at his behavior. The course they spoke of was video and simulator only. They were the only children on the island in their age group, the last set had left on their Journeys nearly a year before.

Balgus frowned at the pair, "Do you know what you are asking? It'll be allot of hard work for you two."

Oddly, it was Xi'an who replied, soberly, "We know sir. We asked our father about it first. We know what we're requesting."

Balgus blinked in surprise. He knew Mao was identified as a psy-type and would naturally have a high IQ, explaining his vocabulary, but Xi'an was only 5 and was using a vocabulary and structure much more advanced than it should be. 

As he understood, the boys' father was once an avid student of hand-to-hand martial arts, but a leg injury during his last Journey had prevented him from continuing. Balgus thought carefully. _The boys seem eager, but also determined, a very favorable trait, it is unlikely either of them would become bored and drop their studies when they're older. But I've never taught anyone so young_. Balgus' eyes alighted on a pair of practice _bokken_ laying against the fence. They were newly made and he had been planning to test their form for balance before forging a pair in metal since the blades they used were unusually broad.

"Alright you two, take those two _bokken_ and I'll see if you can cut it."

"Yea!" they shouted as one, their voices eerily identical. They ran to the sticks, Xi' an arriving first and tossing one to his brother. They stood in the basic Forward stance that they had just been taught, swords held like they had seen in movies. The swords were slightly longer than they were tall, about the length of a _nodachi_(Long sword, blade exceeds 52" by definition, feared for their destructive power against infantry, design later abandoned for _katana_ since forging techniques of their time made them susceptible to snapping in two, all but forgotten in the later schools, I've heard of a set of monks who used them exclusively for defending their temple, usually too slow to use effectively in one-on-one combat against some other swords, I believe using modern materials and metallurgy, this would be the supreme close- and medium-range weapon) scaled down to their proportions.

Balgus blinked, _Their forms are amazingly good considering how long they've trained. Even more so considering their age. They have amazing potential. What the!?!_

His analysis had been interrupted by their perfectly synchronized start. Xi' an went right, Mao left. They struck at the same time too. If he had not been so well-trained, both blows would have connected. Balgus quickly realized that he would have to stop underestimating the pair as he found difficulty in stopping their perfectly coordinated attacks.

__

"Closer than twins", I believe, is what their mother called them during her petition to adopt Mao. I wonder if she realizes how accurate she is. He commented, while parrying another set of blows. The boys were young and ackward, but their speed and coordination made them hard to beat on skill alone. Eventually, Balgus was forced to overpower them by knocking Mao's sword away with a kick, then tripping up his brother after several unsuccessful tries. Xi' an was send flying, tucked, and rolled to an unfurling stop on his back.

"Ow."

Mao winced, seeming to feel his brother's pain. Xi' an, true to his form, quickly recovered from his loop and sat up, looking at Balgus.

"Do we pass?"

A sweating and tired Balgus wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, "If I can keep up with you twosure."

And the years pass

Balgus Masaki sat in his home, bored. It had been 2 years since he had taken Xi' an and Mao under his wing. In those two years they had progressed in unprecedented leaps and bounds. In fact, they had managed to forge their own swords. It took them nearly a year, but they had taken a pair of irregular metal spheres they had found in the local ruins and forged them into blades exactly 2 meters long and 4cm broad(only the back cm not included in the edge). They had even managed the technically difficult straight temper on the edge. The blade itself was so thin Balgus could not imagine how is could be strong enough to support the weight of several hundred pounds without breaking and then only barely bending. And then there was the polish! The pair had created and entirely new method to clean, polish, and sharpen the blade using electromagnets and lasers. In fact, he had had asked a former student of his to measure the edge width while making fittings for the blade. Meanwhile, the boys had gone off to the mainland to scout possible boarding schools for them. Their mother believed that the pair would not be able to max out their education on the small island where they lived, so she decided that she would try to find them a boarding school to go to during the year.

Balgus sighed, _I fear she will find herself out of luck.. Maybe if it was just Xi' an, but he would not go anywhere without his brother. And I seriously doubt any school would accept the pair, no matter their IQ._

Balgus and the twins' parents had discovered quite by accident that the boys would go into violent fits when separated by a distance exceeding a few miles. It got worse the further they were separated. In fact, the first to discover this second tendency was an anti-pokemon group that kidnapped Xi' an to "save" him from "contamination". In the end, after they were on separate islands, both boys stopped their fits and went into a kind of beserker-state trying to reach each other. The pair thankfully had no memories of the incident, but none of the kidnappers got away with anything less than a severe concussion. However, his musings were interrupted by the ringing of the vid-phone. Balgus pushed the "answer" button.

"Hello?"

"Sensei?" asked a man in his mid-30's with green-blue hair and brown eyes on the other end.

"William, good to hear from you. Did you get the package I sent you?"

William nodded, "Yeah, and I must say I'm very impressed. You've really outdone yourself this time."

Balgus chuckled, "They're not mine. My students made them."

William blinked several time before responding, "_You_ took on a new set of students!? The world must be ending. Well, who are they, some promising young world champion in kendo?"

"Nope, a pair of 7 year old children."

William fell over backwards.

"William! Are you alright!?" call Balgus in alarm.

The response was a groan from the rising man.

"A pair of 7 year olds made those! I don't even understand the metal the sword is made of!" he moaned as he pulled himself back onto his chair.

"Neither do they. I had asked them to look into the metal they wanted to make their first live blades from and they came up with a pair of meteorites. Have you been able to scan it?"

"Yeah, it's some form of steel alloy, but it is bonded very strangely. Nearly every atom is directly bonded with every other one. At first I thought the scanner was out of whack, but I tested that little sliver of the stuff you sent. It has a tinsel strength is over 5x that of the most advanced alloys in use today. It's also harder than diamond; the edge is even harder! How the hell did a pair of 7 years olds forge it!"

"I'll do you one better. The blades are folded over 1000 times, and they used just the servo amplifiers, no power hammers."

"Jeez. I can't imagine anyone who could do that. And did you see how the glyph on each side was made?"

"Yes, I saw them do them. They simultaneously slammed the blade from each side with etched hammers. The result was the pattern you see, no polishing necessary. In fact the glyphs are one of the only differences between them."

The glyphs were identical in form: a ying-yang of polished silver and mat-black, a dragon in black on the silver, a tiger in silver on the black, Xi' an's blade had the silver raised close on the right and far on the left side, Mao had the sides reversed. Both images were ornate and very detailed. The other differences were the names etched on the tang: Dragon for Xi' an and Tiger for Mao.

"How thin is the edge while we're examining them?"

"About a single molecule. That's sharper than a surgical scalpel, so how did they sharpen it?"

"Don't ask. I don't even pretend to understand it."

"Well, I guest we can expect great things from them. I'll do my best to fit the blades with my best. Allow we to confirm: they want plain guards of high density superalloy, handles of the oldest heartwood I can find, a wrap of dragonite skin treated and treated to be weatherproofed, sageo of the finest Jumpluff cotton stained black, polished as smooth as possible, and cap of density enhanced layered titanium alloy, and a fastening pin of nano-tech M-alloy(I'll have a short crossover with Metabots later)."

"That's correct; the twins'll supply their own sheaths."

John frowned, "These things won't come cheap, you know."

Balgus nodded, "I have more than enough to pay for them. They are the closest things I'll ever get to successors, even if they use _nodachi_ and not _katana_."

"I'll do my finest then. I'll call you again soon, Sensei."

And with those last words, the vidphone went black.

And the years pass

Nurse Joy was panicked. She had been called out in the middle of a tropical storm to a difficult birthing. The newest breeding Dragonite at the Big D Ranch had had an unusual pregnancy: although most pokemon give birth to eggs, there are very rare cases when they'll give birth to live young, often at the cost of the mother's life, this was one of those cases. And being a small island, she was the only pokemon medical professional on it.

"Nurse Joy! Do you need anything else!" shouted the head hand of the ranch, Dan.

"Just a full OR and at least 2 more hands, no," she grumbled, her gloved hands stained in blood and other bodily fluids as she tried to loosen the tight muscles, which were preventing the newborn's exit.

__

Damn. At this rate we'll lose both the mother and child, Joy cursed mentally.

"Nurse Joy? Are you here?" called an oddly familiar voice from outside.

She turned her head and called, "Mao? That you!" 

"Yeah! Xi' an too. Where are you!"

"In the barn!"

A pair of 9 year old forms poked their head inside, then hopped in, out of the rain.

"Quick you two! I need your hands, now!"

The pair rushed to her side. Mao left and Xi' an right.

"Mao, grab the muscle relaxant from the kit, Xi' an help me stop this bleeding."

"Are you sure this is okay, Joy?" asked the pair, simultaneously, as they dove into their tasks.

Joy shook her head, their choruses were confusing. "Of course I am! You've been helping at the center for the last year!"

"But we've never help you treat a real patient, just those emergency simulations!" reminded Xi' an, now helping Joy close a ruptured artery, which had been torn by the excessive contractions.

"Here," Mao said, handing her the syringe of relaxants.

"Thank you. You two are more useful than you think!"

An hour later

The Dragonite was resting, her young child in her arms. Panting, Mao, Xi'an and Nurse Joy, rested on the floor of the barn, having washed up under the faucet in the barn.

"I'm glad that's over."

"You said it bro."

Nurse Joy looked at the brothers with one eye, "You know, you two are better than the Chansey I have in the center. I'd like to have you keep on helping me, but at a higher level."

"Can we do that?" chorused the pair.

"Yes, we just got permission last week for an Apprentice system to be established in the island PokeCenter. Care to be the first students?"

The twins smiled and nodded.

"Gon," 

"Joy, Mommy just woke up!" called Xi' an as he trotted over to the majestic pokemon's head. Mao joined him. The Pokemon whispered at them too softly for Joy to hear, but she knew what the mother was asking: it was standard practice for a pokemon mother to ask the medic who helped them to name the born child. Although, this firstborn was an odd specimen, he was dark silver where he should blue

"Okay, what do you think, Mao?"

"I dunno, what's a good Draconian name"

Xi' an looked out the doors of the barn and saw the last rays of the setting sun at the horizon, despite the storm's best attempts to smother them.

"Dusk"

Mao nodded in agreement, and the mother Dragonite repeated the name in her own language.

"Well, come on you two, let's get cleaned up before we go the center and get you registered."

The brothers said their good byes before following Joy out.

And the years pass

Well, it's taken a few months, but here's ch.1. Ch.2 might not be out till summer at this rate, sorry to whoever's interested enough to read. Flames will be met with Hydro Pump.


End file.
